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OutdoorEnvy

It's just an old splitting maul...still a fun project though

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ebinmaine

Excellent work!

 

 

 

23 minutes ago, OutdoorEnvy said:

And feel free to post up your favorite wood pile splitter!  I'd love to see em!

Ours is a hydraulic version.  

🙂

 

And a fiskars... 

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WHX??

My shoulders hurt just reading that Outdoor so I gotta side with EB. 

Back in the day tho dad and I split everything with a maul. He continued well in his late 70s 'till he bought power. He was blessed with great shoulders.  

I broke one of his favorite handles and replaced it with a fiberglass  handle that was epoxied on. That one took a beating too but still holding up for occasional use.

@formariz may be interested in this thread. 

 

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Lane Ranger

My recommendation is to buy only a hickory handle and get a local blacksmith to make you a splitting wedge!  Use the hammer end of your maul or get a short handle sledge!  Theat will save you a lot of frustration and fewer handles being broken!

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OutdoorEnvy
12 minutes ago, Lane Ranger said:

My recommendation is to buy only a hickory handle and get a local blacksmith to make you a splitting wedge!  Use the hammer end of your maul or get a short handle sledge!  Theat will save you a lot of frustration and fewer handles being broken!

 

Right now I'm still young enough to enjoy the exercise and I don't use wood to heat my home or anything that warrants this being a regular chore.  It's mainly for backyard fires and camping/hunting trips.  I do want to get a splitting wedge and I did get one of these little splitting hatchets by Estwing a while back.  This pick is when it was new.  But its been a tough and good tool for sure and will make a few splitting chores easier.

 

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WHX??
12 minutes ago, Lane Ranger said:

 to make you a splitting wedge! 

I have four of them.

13 minutes ago, Lane Ranger said:

 fewer handles being broken!

I was alot younger and wilder!

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Skwerl58

I had  a 6lb maul like yours that I purchased probably new in 81 or 82 that I had used  until I picked up a Craftsman with a fiberglass handle. I rehandled the old maul head a couple of years ago and gave it to my oldest son.  I have been buying a few handles from House Handles from their on line site. They are good handles and pricing is excellent. At 64 I work wiser so I do use a gas splitter when I have a lot to split. Swing away!

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Pullstart
4 hours ago, ebinmaine said:

fiskars


:text-+1: for the scissors comp’ny!  Need proof?

 

 

 

 

 

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OutdoorEnvy
1 hour ago, Skwerl58 said:

I had  a 6lb maul like yours that I purchased probably new in 81 or 82 that I had used  until I picked up a Craftsman with a fiberglass handle. I rehandled the old maul head a couple of years ago and gave it to my oldest son.  I have been buying a few handles from House Handles from their on line site. They are good handles and pricing is excellent. At 64 I work wiser so I do use a gas splitter when I have a lot to split. Swing away!

House Handle is good.  I’ve used them and like what handles I have received.  I use them when ordering a lot of handles.  Otherwise shipping isn’t worth it.  
 

chop on!

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formariz

Great find. Pretty hard to find one with the ax eye. They should all be that way. There would be much less handles breaking. There is another improvement you can try which I did many years ago when my back allowed for hand splitting . It may seem like overkill but it does work better. File and polish the sides to a mirror finish. Create a non perceptible transition between bevel and head sides. That along with ocasional waxing, greatly reduces friction upon entering wood allowing it to penetrate deeper. Sounds crazy but after a whole day of swinging it it makes a real difference. It also eliminates most of the getting stuck. Kind of a similar philosophy to sharpening a carving tool. 

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WHGuy413

I was working in the garage one day and I kept hearing this tink tink tink sound. I walked out side and there are my boys using my little sledge hammer from the garage to drive an old hatchet into a big piece of fire wood. Once I saw what they were up to I quickly switched them to a real sledge and a real wedge. They had a blast splitting about 10 pieces of maple between them. I said to them “hey boys you do know we have a wood splitter right?” The reply I got was priceless. “Yeah we know dad but this is more fun because you didn’t tell us to do it we just did it”. Now if they would just do other things I didn’t tell them to do like clean their room. I purchased a pair of mauls for them from an old timer I used to work with. They quickly got bored with those. They never did finish that pile of wood. Guess I should leave the sledge and wedges out where they can see them and maybe they will be  inspired to start again.

49552D40-C368-4A32-97D5-DBC9720ABA36.jpeg

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